Fear Not the Future

Many of us ate too much yesterday.  Good turkey gravy is now clogging our arteries and we have nothing to look forward to except costly heart procedures and a lifetime of taking expensive drugs.  If we are lucky enough to avoid that terror then we will still face the economic collapse of our nation in the face of growing Chinese prosperity.  Barring that there is another war brewing with Islamic terrorists somewhere and your kids are soon going to be the stupidest in the world. That kind of pessimism fills the media daily.  There are people who actually stay awake at night worrying about this.

Maybe it’s all true.  That doesn’t mean we need to live in fear.  The Jewish people could certainly relate to all those horrors and many more.  But God gave them a promise about their future.  When giving that promise He said quite simply, “Fear not. You have been the tail, but I will make you the head.  You have been abused, but your King will reign over all.”  He said to them, “Your future is in my hands.”  Someday Jesus will return, the Jews will worship Him as King and all will be well.  But the promise of “all will be well” is not for them alone.  It is for all who believe in Him.

None of us is really in control of our won future.  The best laid plans can be completely turned upside down by someone else.  People who write books on healthy living for longevity die of heart attacks at age 40.  People who set aside millions of dollars have solid investments tank overnight.  Governments decide to build a road through your dream house.  In this world we do our best to plan correctly, but it doesn’t always work out.  But the real future is forever.  Our entire existence on earth is but a vapor of our eternal existence.  It is that future that God has promised is secure to all who have faith in His Son. Lots of bad things can, and often do, happen to His children in the here and now.  But the here and now is not forever.  Forever His promise is joy and glory to all His children.

Peter Lutkin wrote, “The World Is Sad with Hopes That Die”, a hymn that gives us a right perspective on now and forever.  Fear not, God says, your future is in My hands. 

“The world is sad with hopes that die, with joys that gleam and then go by,

and dim the mortal eyes that gaze on setting suns of parting days.

Better the hope, the joy, the light for spiritual heart and sight!

For they whose life is hid on high shall never part and never die.” 

 

 

 

The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

Visit my website at www.davidccraig.net for inspiring Christian books.

You may also find some of my selected daily devotions at http://blog.febc.org/